Shari Randall's"Pets" will be included in Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies anthology, which will be published in 2018. In the same anthology "Rasputin," KM Rockwood'sshort story, will also bepublished. Her short story "Goldie" will be published in the Busted anthology, which will be released by Level Best Books on April 25th.

Shari Randall's second Lobster Shack Mystery, Against the Claw, will be available in August, 2018.

In addition, our prolific KMhas had the following shorts published as well: "Making Tracks" in Passport to Murder, Bouchercon anthology, October 2017 and "Turkey Underfoot," appears in the anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Fifth Course of Chaos.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Snoopy's Poop Scores Crime Coup

That
was a headline announcing the arrest of a suspect in Indiana for a triple
slaying. It came about when the suspect stepped in dog poop at the scene of the
crime, and when he was apprehended later, he claimed he’d been nowhere near the
site. However, not only did he leave a foot print in the poop, there was just
enough found on his shoe for the DNA of the only dog on the property to be a
match.

The
match was made in a small, three-person laboratory at UC Davis – the only
accredited forensic lab in the country dealing with animal evidence. They use
the same techniques and tools as human labs, although they use primers specific
to the animal evidence being tested.
Urine, hair, poop, saliva or other animal evidence left behind can help
solve animal cruelty, animal attacks on humans and human crimes like robbery,
rape and murder where an animal left a mark behind. Beth Wictum, the lab
director said “Some studies show you can’t go into a house where there’s a dog
or a cat without picking up some evidence.” For instance, in one case the
woman’s dog relieved itself on the tire of the man who tried to sexually
assault her. Even though she couldn’t pick him out in the lineup, the dog’s pee
on the tire linked him to the scene.

My California rag doll cats watching TV

Once
upon a time, animal evidence might have been overlooked, but today’s
investigators automatically collect any animal fur, hairs, feces, urine stains
and tissue samples found at a crime scene. They also take mouth swabs from pets
after they defend their owners against attackers, and increasingly they check
the blankets, rugs and sheets wrapped around homicide victims.

On
Christmas Eve 2002, Kevin Butler was murdered in his home by two men who broke
into his apartment and started to beat him. His pet cockatoo – named Bird after
basketball great Larry Bird – tried to come to his rescue. He repeatedly dove
down on the attackers, clawing at their skin and pecking their heads. The
police found Bird dead, stabbed to death with a fork, but the blood trails Bird
created as well as human DNA found in Bird’s beak, matched the prime suspect
and helped put his owner’s murderer behind bars for life.

This
lab doing such great work is in a humble setup; one trailer parked on a dusty
side road on the fringe of the Davis campus. The three lab technicians; Beth
Wictum, Teri Kun and Christina Lindquist, have access to databases from years
of research at the wider Veterinary Genetics Lab, which includes databases of
dogs, cats, horses, cows, llamas, sheep, goats, pigs and alpacas. They help
solve animal abuse cases, ownership disputes and have even debunked some
Bigfoot cases proving the fur came from a bear or a chimpanzee.

In
my first book, The Blue Rose, the
police chief sent cat fur in for DNA testing. Because my books cover a one week
period and DNA testing can take months, I gave him a longtime friend from
college days, who works in a DNA lab and rushes everything through for him.
Hey, it’s fiction. What else can I say?

17 comments:

I love it. Our pets save us in so many ways. Thanks for bringing this lab and evidence to our attention, Gloria. So many mysteries contain animal characters. It will be useful to many writers. Fido saves the day!

Jim, there are a lot of possibilities. I was glad to read that fur tested debunked some of the Bigfoot sightings.

E.B. I thought the cockatoo story was quite touching. We always think of birds having bird brains - which can be true for chickens, but some birds have high intelligence and attachment to their human owners.

Kara, pets can be a lot of work, but I think they're worth it, too. I'm not sure my dog would defend me. More than likely she would stand at a safe distance and bark. Maybe I should get a cockatoo for protection. :-)

Linda, that's because you want your books to be true to the facts. In my case, I fudged and had the police chief have a buddy, who worked in the lab and did it quicker for him. He probably couldn't do that in real life, but most readers wouldn't know or are willing to suspend belief. Consider in a three month period in my safe little town, there have already been seven murders. I'm competing with Cabot's Cove. :-)

What an fascinating post, Gloria. I've only used an animal once in any of my books, and that was a seeing eye dog. I don't know why I include them more. My son is a vet, and we've always had a dog or cat. Now we have two dogs, and I love them. Surely something to think about. I'm going to send my son the link to your post. I think he'd enjoy it.